Sania Mirza will get Khel Ratna on August 29 as scheduled: official

August 28, 2015

New Delhi, Aug 28: The Sports Ministry has decided to go ahead with it's original decision to confer the prestigious Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award on Sania Mirza on August 29. This, despite the Karnataka High Court issuing notices to the government and tennis ace over the petition filed by Paralympian HN Girisha, who has challenged the recommendation of the awards selection panel.

SaniaA senior ministry official told dna that the court's notice will not cast any shadow on the awards ceremony on August 29 at the Rashtrapati Bhavan, and that the original awards list will be implemented in totality.

"The ministry will not make any last-minute changes to the awards list. Sania will get the Khel Ratna as per the awards committee's recommendation. The decision is final," a senior official said on Thursday.

The official informed that the ministry has received the court notice on Thursday and will be filing its reply within the stipulated 15 days. "Yes, we have received the notice. We will give reply to the notice in due course. The ministry will frame its reply after going through the contents of it. We will explain out everything to the court," the official added.

Justice AS Bopanna of the Karnataka High Court has sought reply from the ministry as to why Girisha's name was overlooked in favour of Sania, considering the points system being implemented by the Union government.

Girisha, 2012 London Paralympic silver medallist, had contended in his plea that he deserved to win the coveted award more than Sania because he was the top candidate with 90 points against his name and the tennis star was far behind him as per performance-based points system.

Girisha said Sania's Wimbledon doubles crown would not be counted for the coveted award as it was not included in the events mentioned in the government notification for awarding Khel Ratna. He said the ministry should consider a sportsperson's name for the award taking into account performances at the Olympics, Paralympics, Asian Games, Commonwealth Games and World Championships from 2011.

Sania, who won her first women's doubles Grand Slam title by lifting the Wimbledon crown with Swiss partner Martina Hingis in June, was recommended for the country's highest sporting honour by a government-appointed selection panel. The sports ministry has also given its approval on Sania getting the coveted award.

The ministry's decision has come at a time when at least five disgruntled athletes have filed court cases challenging the recommendations of the awards committee.

While Seema Antil (discus throw), Vinod Kumar (wrestling coach), KC Lekha (woman boxer), Shaik Abdul Hameed (ten-pin bowling) and Girisha have already filed the cases in different courts, dope-tainted weightlifting coach Shyamala Shetty will be approaching the judiciary on Monday against the ministry's decision to drop her name from the Dronacharya award list.

"This is the most contentious awards ceremony ever seen where athletes are hankering for Khel Ratna or Arjuna award. This year's award ceremony is engulfed by so many court cases that it has itself demeaned the value of the honour," said the official.

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Agencies
May 9,2020

Tokyo, May 9: As the world continues to grapple with coronavirus pandemic, the organisers of Tokyo Game Show have cancelled 2020 showpiece event.

TGS 2020 was slated to be played from September 24 to September 27 at the Makuhari Messe convention center. However, there now talks going on for holding an online event instead.

According to the Verge, this is the first time that TGS has ever been cancelled since it started in 1996.

TGS 2020 gained more attention because of its status as the last major trade show before the launch of the upcoming next-gen consoles, the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5.

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News Network
April 14,2020

Karachi, Apr 14: Disappointed with Kapil Dev's response, Pakistan's Shahid Afridi has backed his former teammate Shoaib Akhtar's proposal for an ODI series against India to help raise funds for the less privileged in their fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Afridi told reporters in Kohat that he was surprised by the comments of Indian great Kapil and former IPL chairman, Rajeev Shukla, who outrightly dismissed Akhtar's suggestion.

"The entire world is fighting against coronavirus and we need unity in our region to defeat this common enemy. Such negative comments don't help at all," Afridi said.

"I don't see anything wrong with Shoaib Akhtar's suggestion for Pakistan and India to play cricket.

"Kapil's reaction has surprised me. I expected better from him and feel one should not talk like this in these crisis times."

Afridi said that he was also surprised at some of the "negative comments" Indian stars Harbhajan Singh and Yuvraj Singh's support for his charity foundation attracted.

"Sport is supposed to bring people together and build bridges. It is pretty disappointing."

Afridi also urged Prime Minister Imran Khan to order the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to restore departmental cricket in the country to save the livelihood of hundreds of domestic players.

"I myself played for the departments and witnessed how departments really salvaged domestic cricket in Pakistan and helped it thrive decade after decade.

"Departments take good care of the players and spend lots of money on the development of domestic cricket, so how can departmental cricket hurt Pakistan cricket," questioned Afridi.

He also questioned the PCB and the Pakistan team management for making a fitness of players a big issue.

"They are always talking about hard training and fitness tests. I have never seen fitness tests taken with such frequency and the result is that many players are getting injured and many of them are also unhappy with the situation."

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Agencies
February 5,2020

Hamilton, Feb 5: Ross Taylor and Tom Latham played knocks of 109 and 69, respectively, as New Zealand defeated India by four wickets in the first ODI of the three-match series here at the Seddon Park on Wednesday.

Chasing 348, New Zealand got off to a steady start as openers Martin Guptill and Henry Nicholls put on 85 runs for the first wicket, however, India finally got the breakthrough in the 16th over as Shardul Thakur dismissed Guptill (32).

Tom Blundell and Nicholls then put on 24 runs for the second wicket, but their vigil came to an end in the 20th over as Kuldeep Yadav had Blundell (9) stumped at the hands of wicket-keeper KL Rahul, reducing Kiwis to 109/2.

Nicholls then retrieved the innings for the hosts as he found support in Ross Taylor. The duo mixed caution with aggression to stitch together a partnership of 62 runs. But with their back against the wall, skipper Kohli lifted the side up as he ran out Nicholls (78) in the 29th over, reducing New Zealand to 171/3.

Skipper Tom Latham, came out to bat next, and he increased the tempo of the Kiwi innings. He took a special liking to Kuldeep and kept on sweeping him to pick easy boundaries on the legside.

Taylor and Latham put on a stand of 138 runs to take Kiwis closer to victory. But with 39 runs away from the target, Kuldeep dismissed Latham (69) to revive India's hopes of making a comeback.

Mohammed Shami removed Jimmy Neesham (9) in the 46th over while Colin de Grandhomme (1) was sent packing via a run-out to send cat among the pigeons in the Kiwi camp. In the end, Mitchell Santner and Taylor took the hosts over the line by four wickets and with 11 balls to spare.

Earlier, Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul's knocks of 103 and 88, respectively, helped India post 347/4 in the allotted twenty overs.

After being put in to bat, India got off to a quickfire start as openers Prithvi Shaw and Mayank Agarwal put on 50 runs. Colin de Grandhomme finally provided the breakthrough to the Kiwis as he sent Shaw (20) back to the pavilion in the eighth over.

Agarwal (32) was also dismissed soon after by Tim Southee and the Men in Blue were reduced to 54/2 in the ninth over.

Skipper Virat Kohli and Shreyas Iyer then retrieved the innings for the visitors as the duo put on 102 runs for the third wicket. Kohli brought up his 58th half-century in the 28th over.

Ish Sodhi got the crucial breakthrough of Kohli (51) in the 29th over as he clean bowled him to reduce India to 156/3. However, Iyer continued to march on and brought up his maiden ODI century in the 43rd over.

KL Rahul, who came in to bat at number five provided the much-needed impetus to the innings. He along with Iyer put on a stand of 136 runs for the fourth wicket.

Iyer (103) was finally sent back to the pavilion by Southee in the 46th over, reducing India to 292/4.

In the final overs, Rahul and Kedar Jadhav hammered the Kiwi players to take India's score past the 340-run mark. Jadhav remained unbeaten on 26.

Brief Scores: New Zealand 348/6 (Ross Taylor 109*, Henry Nicholls 78, Kuldeep Yadav 2-84) defeat India 347/4 (Shreyas Iyer 103, KL Rahul 88*, Tim Southee 2-85) by four wickets.

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